Tucurui Dam: Facts, Theories, and Approaches

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With 45 000 large dams throughout the world, it is clear that dams have made a crucial assistance to human development, and the advantages derived from them have been significant. Similar to all development options, assessments on dams and their alternatives must consider a vast range of requirements, expectations, aims and confinements. Dams have both costs and benefits, making these costs and benefits balance is a exceedingly delicate task.

In several cases an inappropriate and often unnecessary cost has been made to achieve those benefits, particularly in social and environmental terms; the Tucurui Dam in Brazil being one of these cases.

The Tucurui? Dam is situated on the lower Tocantins River within the Tocantins-Araguaia River Basin adjacent to the Amazon basin in north-eastern Brazil. The complex was constructed with the chief objective of producing hydropower, with the secondary goal of supplying a navigable river route being introduced later.

The complete cost of Tucurui? was US $7. 5 billion, this total exhibiting a 77% cost overrun. The people of Pari? State perceived an association between hydropower and shipping as a chance to stimulate the local economy.

One must note that fundamentally, the social and political receptivity to the Tucurui? hydropower complex at the regional level rested on the prospect of linking the two sectors. However, the locals are yet to see this prospect in action. The construction of the locks was hobbled by a shortage of funding, and ground to a halt in 1989, the remaining parts for the lock system were said to be completed with Phase II of the project.

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Yet uncertainty loiters over Phase II construction schedule, with relation to the building of the locks.

Tucuruí Dam Dams

Additionally, although the communities around the area of the complex anticipated that the project would stimulate the development of the region, shockingly they did not receive electricity from the project until 1997, when, only as a consequence of intense pressure from local groups, a step-down substation was constructed to cater for the locals. Conversely, on a wider scale hydropower now accounts for 90% of the total power consumption in Brazil with Greenhouse Gas emissions lower compared to the emissions from alternative sources of

electricity generation from Tucurui? ; diesel, heavy oil and coal, thus herein lies a benefit for the environment. Alternatively, the installation of power production enabled Tucurui? to replace thermo-power plants in the North east which were supplying power to the industries in Beli? m at a greater cost. In 1998 with the integration to the South/South east System via the Tucurui? -Serra da Mesa power line, electricity was sold to South east Brazil; the most distinguished economy in the country. Moreover, the construction of the Tucurui?

hydropower complex was a vital element in the regional and national policies influencing the globalisation process of Brazil. With a favourable economic environment and subsidised inputs the state mining company, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, was able to evolve into one of the world’s major iron ore producers. Furthermore, the provision of competitive subsidised power supplied incentives for the migration of energy intensive industries from developing countries burdened with very high energy costs into Brazil.

Alternatively, the globalisation process is highlighted in this sector with the involvement of trans-national corporations from the major economic strongholds of the United States and Japan. Yet imperatively, although gains for dominant industries were established, there was an absence of widespread positive results that had been predicted for the national and regional economies; as ever with globalisation the rewards are very concentrated to a minor assembly who are commonly foreigners. Additionally, even when there was some regional development it was isolated to enclaves surrounding metallurgical industries.

Pressures from its international associates caused Brazil to make allowances, especially in terms of inexpensive energy prices, severely affecting economic profits at the national level, with insignificant or no return for the region. It seems therefore that even when parts of the economy have benefited from the project it is limited to or dependant on foreign corporations, thus there are benefits but at the cost of economic vulnerability. Before the project was constructed subsistence agriculture was the dominant means of survival for communities.

Fishing was also prevalent in the region before the erecting of the dam, with an estimated catch of 1,534 tons/year, however catch data shows that the project meant that the area saw a 29% decline, with a reduction from 173 to 123 fish species. Not only were livelihoods put at risk by the death of species caused by a number of reasons, the chief being water quality due to euthropication, but it is another example of the most richly endowed and most distinct on the globe being destroyed for slight economic gains in an unequal trading system.

The project involved submersion of 2,850 km2 of land including large areas of rainforest for the reservoir. It must be noted that a Wildlife Working Group was set up to prepare a Wildlife Development Inventory Plan, this was the most extensive and the most costly wildlife rescue carried out in Amazonia with a total investment of US $30. Conversely, the demographic effects of the project were highly significant, with the prospect of gaining construction or associated employment attracting huge influxes of migrants multiplying the population of the immediate area six-fold.

However, this severely strained the infrastructure of the region and resulted in the growth of favelas, which promote ill health, crime and poverty. During the resettlement process, over 14,000 people formerly resident in the areas inundated by the reservoir were relocated, this resettlement process occurred exceedingly late and in a confined way with no thought given to the livelihood patterns of the families.

This oversight was no more evident than when riverbank communities were placed inland and the extractive communities were settled in lands requiring farming in the adjoining areas. Likewise, consideration for compensation neglected the amount of work invested in the land, as well as the cultural logic, and social and historical environment of local communities. One must note that the local health impacts of constructing the Tucurui? Hydropower Complex are notable and negative.

The lack of sanitary infrastructure, safe drinking water and the use of smudge pots to deflect mosquitoes made them exposed to diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea, verminoses and respiratory problems. This coupled with the growth in population caused by the inflow of immigrants, resulted in a marked upsurge in the occurrence of vector transmitted diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis, as well as industrial accidents, alcoholism, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS.

In 1980 during the construction stage of the project the infant mortality rates for the Tucurui? municipal district was more than six times larger than the rest of Pari? State and five times the infant mortality rate for all of Brazil. It is clear that the local population paid the cost for the project – small farmers, indigenous communities and riverbank dwellers, homes, livelihoods and health were adversely affected by the project.

It is also clear that that the undoubted benefits of the dam are not gained within Brazil but by foreign investors. The project was constructed despite the locals initial hopes, to try and shape Brazil, so that it is more competitive on the world market, yet it has resulted in is destroying the invaluable environment, causing health problems an has displaced locals into inappropriate areas. Ironically, it seems that the scheme resulted in Brazil becoming extremely vulnerable to trans-national companies with generally insignificant local profit.

Although one may argue that this is the case for all countries due to the increasingly global nature of world trade it is more apparent in ‘developing’ countries such as Brazil, who do not have as stronger internal industries as the ‘developed’ countries do, such as Japan,, thus meaning that they are exceedingly reliant and hence more vulnerable to the decisions of trans- national companies. In conclusion, I believe that the scheme was unjustified, not only in financial terms but also in social and environmental terms too.

Dams alter landscapes and create risks of irrevocable impacts. The debate about dams is a debate concerning the very aim and pathways for accomplishing all growth and development. Similar to all development propositions, unless dams attempt to promote integrated development actions for rural areas, stress renewable energy projects (which the scheme did) improve the quality of life for local communities, whilst taking into regard the fact that the urban populace has easier access to the advantages of these enterprises, then they will continue to exhibit more costs than benefits.